2018 Cubs attendance watch: June 5-10 homestand

We ran the full gamut of weather in Chicago last week: Warm days, cool nights, drizzle, fog, thunderstorms.

None of which delayed any of the six Cubs games played for even one minute. Rain fell in the morning several days, but ended in time for games to start on time. Credit to the grounds crew for getting the field prepared for play.

And for the six games played, at least 40,000 paid for all of them:

June 5 vs. Phillies: 40,553
June 6 vs. Phillies: 40,275
June 7 vs. Phillies: 40,057
June 8 vs. Pirates: 40,097
June 9 vs. Pirates: 41,045
June 10 vs. Pirates: 40,735

Despite various forms of bad weather, there weren’t too many no-shows, either. The ballpark was mostly full for all six of these games.

Cubs paid attendance passed the one million mark during this homestand and now totals 1,211,714 for 32 dates, or 37,866 per date. The Cubs’ team total ranks sixth, just ahead of the Red Sox, just behind the Yankees. The average ranks fifth, just behind the Giants, just ahead of the Angels.

As I have been doing for the last couple of years, I turn the rest of this post over to BCB reader Lifetime Cubs Fan, who has some details on recent ticket pricing trends over the last two homestands. The photo at the top of this post is from the full house at Wrigley Saturday, May 26.

The last two homestands saw a significant improvement in weather conditions (compared to April and the first part of May). One might think that tickets on the secondary market would have exceeded what season ticket holders paid as a result for all sections where data was gathered. That statement is partially true as the bleachers were the only section (of the three evaluated) to see secondary market prices above what STHs paid.

Here are the highlights:

For the Bleachers, the nice weather was a significant factor in secondary market prices exceeding the cost of what STHs paid for the two most recent homestands. Other factors (in my opinion) were the holiday weekend, college kids home from school, and the last three ‘Silver’ tier games until late August. This resulted in the secondary market having a 25 percent premium relative to what season ticket holders paid for the 11 games over the last two homestands. It will be interesting to observe pricing behavior for the rest of June and July almost all of the games are “Platinum” or higher pricing tiers.

For the Upper Deck Box – Infield, we are getting to the point where season ticket holders may want to start contacting their representative and informing them that people purchasing tickets on the secondary market are still getting tickets at a large discount compared to the price they paid. For the last two homestands, one could have purchased Upper Deck Box – Infield tickets on Stubhub for 42 percent less than what season ticket holders paid.

A request was made after the last article to gather data and provide insight for other sections (better seats). Below reflects the data for the Club Box Infield section for the last two homestands. It is interesting that someone could have purchased tickets on the secondary market for 16 percent less than what a STH paid for the last two homestands for some of the best seats in the ballpark. Though a relatively small sample size, in my opinion, it appears the Cubs have priced this section to be ‘scalper proof’ as secondary market prices align with what STH’s paid.

The chart below reflects the year to date for the three sections (partial data for Club Box Infield). To date, secondary market pricing remains below for all sections where data has been gathered.

Club Box Infield: 16 percent discount (though likely more with the horrendous weather in April / early May)

Upper Deck Box – Infield: 57 percent discount (in the words of E.T. “Ouch”)

Bleachers: 10 percent discount

If you have any items you would like for me to gather data on and assess, let me know in the comments. The Cubs just went into first place, and hopefully, by my next update they’ll still be there!